December 4 marked the awards ceremony of the first stage of the Petro Jacyk International Ukrainian Language Contest. The awards were conferred during a ceremonial assembly at the Ukrainian Military Medical Academy dedicated to the eleventh anniversary of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (December 6 - Ed.). The present contest is third in a succession. According to Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky, Executive Director of the Ukrainian League of Philanthropists, the late Petro Jacyk, the most distinguished donor in the Ukrainian diaspora, hit upon the idea of the contest during a visit to Ukraine. He saw that the Ukrainian language in our country in fact does not enjoy a status of the national language and concluded that people need an incentive to learn it. It will be recalled that Petro Jacyk is not only credited with lending his name to the contest. He founded Ukrainian Studies at a number of prestigious universities throughout the world, including Harvard and the University of Toronto. He sponsored the publication of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s History of Ukraine-Rus’ in English, costing some $15 million Canadian, and scores of other projects. By decision of the organizing committee of the contest, the Ukrainian Language in the Professional Activity of Military Specialists, held at the Ukrainian Military Medical Academy, where both cadets and their instructors received diplomas and valuable gifts. And although this was only an intermediate stage of the contest, the fact that it was held for the second time at a military educational establishment makes it significant, for who more than the military is associated with the notion of perhaps somewhat effaced but indispensable notion of patriotism? And what else but the Ukrainian language is the main component of patriotism? Within this context, Petro Jacyk’s investment in Ukraine’s future has already started to pay off.
